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| 1839 MCH Tax Book |
Frankly, I wouldn't be able to do any of this if I had to actually go out and hunt down each document I needed individually. I don't have the time, gas money, or energy for that. This blog could not have existed before the internet, and not just because where would I have put it? Having said that (and having used up about a minute of your life doing so), once in a while I'm lucky enough to actually get my hands on original, true, honest to goodness historical documents. Thanks to the generosity of some wonderful people and the foresight of their ancestors, this is one of those times.
This is also a story of serendipity, great timing, and a fortunate coincidence. After having been contacted by Dick Joyce, and while in the midst of researching the Graves Road area (of which the Peoples Farm post became the first), I got another email that would help to focus my investigating. This one came from Bob Pigford, on behalf of himself and his wife, Patsy. Patsy's mother, Helen Pierson Houchin, had passed away early last year at the age of 96. In going through her belongings, they came across several items they thought I might be interested in. I was, very much, and you'll find out more about two of them in a moment. But first, I'll explain why their contacting me was so fortuitous and coincidental, and it works on at least three different levels, all having to do with Patsy's family.
First, Patsy's grandfather (Helen's father) was Kemper Bryant Pierson. I had come across the name before, as he was a builder in the Marshallton area. The Piersons lived on the outskirts of Marshallton, where they were intertwined with the Balls and Klairs featured in the Edward Cranston House story. His wife was the former Sarah Edith Klair, daughter of Aaron Francis Klair. Aaron Klair (Patsy's great-grandfather) was the author of an infamous anti-liquor law, and I had just finished refreshing myself on him for my talk last fall at the Greenbank Mill. And finally, the Pierson family in the 19th Century had lived...along Graves Road next to the Peoples family. Patsy's family were neighbors of the Joyces in the 50's and 60's!
But on top of all that, Bob and Patsy had some items to show me. Two of them are the amazing records feature here. Passed down through the Pierson family were two tax assessment books dating from 1839 and 1840. The books were originally the property of William Cloud Pierson (1793-1875), Patsy's Great-great-great grandfather. William C. Pierson was a Hockessin farmer, whose property lay on the west side of Lancaster Pike just below the Pennsylvania line. For at least the years of 1839 and 1840, he also served as the tax collector for Mill Creek Hundred. And luckily for us, he held on to the books after he was done collecting the taxes.
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| Duplicate Assessment List Mill Creek Hundred 1840 |
It appears that William probably passed the books down to his son John B. Pierson (1833-1922), who in turn gave it to his son, also named William Cloud Pierson (1861-1939). An inscription near the back of the 1839 book states, "This book given to Kemper B. Pierson by William C. Pierson. Nov. 5, 1923". This younger William C. was the cousin of Kemper's father. From there it passed down a couple generations to Patsy and Bob through her mother. Now, having given you the background and provenance of the book, what exactly is in them and what can they tell us?
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| The beginning of the F's for 1839 |
The bulk of each of the books is comprised of a list of MCH residents (I think it's all heads of household, although it could be land owners), the assessed value of their property, and the tax they owed. There were three different taxes levied by New Castle County -- a Road tax, a County Tax, and a Poor Tax. In the instructions written out for the collector, it's stated that the taxes are to be collected at the rate of forty cents per hundred dollars for the Road and County tax, and seven cents for the Poor tax. It must have been changed at some point, because the amounts listed in the book work out to be about 0.57%, if my math is correct. (Ok, if my computer's calculator's math is correct.) The total amount listed in the 1839 book is $4596.27 for the County (and Road) tax and $804.35 for the Poor tax, for a total tax burden for the hundred of $5400.62. Working backwards gives a total assessed value for MCH of a little over $947,000.
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| First page of instructions for 1839 |
For the year 1840, the tax rates were listed as thirty cents per hundred for the County and Road, and six cents for the Poor tax. The actual rate ends up being right about 0.5%. Again, I can't explain the discrepancy. The 1840 totals were $3754.27 and $750.86, totaling $4505.13. So that year the hundred was worth just over $901,000. I can't seem to find it now, but I think in one of the books it stated there were seven hundred and some entries. I should have a better total soon (and more about that in a moment).
So the books give us a wonderful (and presumably complete) list of households in MCH, but unlike the census these are listed alphabetically. I'm not sure I understand the process correctly (maybe someone else could help), but this is how I think it went. Pierson was given the book with the names, assessed values, and tax amounts already filled in. I think it's unlikely that he went around the hundred door to door collecting taxes, although there might have been a little of that. I know that later on I've seen notices in the newspaper giving notice of dates and places (usually taverns or stores) where residents could go and pay their taxes. I assume that something like this was happening in 1839/1840, too. Interestingly, the books have notes for people who have left the state, and presumably were unavailable to be collected from. And since I guess farmer was the assumed, default occupation, those who weren't have a notation of theirs next to their name (like cooper, weaver, t[avern] keeper, etc.). The occasional "(N)", I'm assuming, stood for "Negro". It's also stated that the Collector has the authority to take to jail (gaol, actually) anyone who refuses to pay.
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| "Receipts" for Pierson's payments of his collections |
Toward the back of the books are what are essentially written receipts of payments of the tax money made by Pierson to various officials. There are about a dozen or so, made from about the middle of the tax year to the middle of the following year. This further bolsters the idea that the taxes were collected by Pierson in parts over the course of a year. Although I have included some photos of the book here, posting every page of each book would be pretty bulky. Instead, what I plan to do (and have already started) is to transcribe the names, values, and tax amounts into a spreadsheet, and make them available to all. With any luck I may have 1839 done next week, with 1840 to follow. I just have to remember how to use Google Drive.
I want to again thank Bob and Patsy Pigford for finding these amazing artifacts and sharing them with us. I can't imagine that there are too many items like these floating around out there, and they can provide some very useful information. If anyone has any other specific questions about the books or their contents, I'd be happy to answer whatever I can. In the meantime, enjoy these two 180 year old treasures.
Edit 3/1/2019:
I do have the finished product available for the 1839 and 1840 tax books, and I have just a few more things to say about them. There’s still a lot I don’t know about them, but Walt Chiquoine was able to give me a few more tidbits. It seems at that time there was a full assessment done every ten years on the twos (1802, 1812, 1822, etc.). In between they pretty much just carried everything over, only making changes for sales, arrivals and departures from the area (and life), and so forth. There were two sets of books, one for the collector and one for the county.
I’ve done the best I can in transcribing them, but there were times when I had to just make my best guess. If at any point anyone has questions about a particular entry, I will do my best to clarify it. And since everybody likes rich people (right?), I’ll tell you there were 13 men whose assessed property value was very near or over $10,000. I think I know who they all were, and several have already been written about on the blog. The winner (by quite a bit) at $24,927 was not even a MCH resident – Thomas Cooch. For just a few years around that time, he owned the Roseville mill site east of Newark. I think that’s what was valued. The highest “real” MCH resident was Simon Cranston at $16,813, followed closely by Samuel Meeteer (of the later Curtis paper mill). The others were Matthew Newkirk’s estate (Brandywine Springs hotel owner), Thomas Little, Samuel Bailey, Abel Jeans, George Janvier, David Eastburn’s estate, Joseph Mitchell, Thomas Jackson, Abraham Brown’s estate, and Andrew Gray.
The transcriptions can be found here. A link will also be permanently located on the sidebar of the blog. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask.